Discussion on cable process: cable forming

1、 What is cable formation
Definition of cable forming: the process of twisting multiple insulated cores into AAC Cables according to certain rules.
2、 The role of cable forming in cable production
Cable forming is one of the important processes in the production of multi-core cables. The three core, four core (one core is the ground wire) and five core (one core is the ground wire and the other is the neutral wire) of the three-phase power supply is commonly used for power cables. The number of control cable cores is more (more than 2 cores to 61 cores). During the cable forming process, several insulated cores are twisted together according to certain rules, The process of forming a multi-core cable. In addition to the stranding, the process of cable forming includes filling of the gap between the cores of the insulated wires, wrapping and shielding on the core after the cable forming.
When forming cables, the twisted form of insulation core adopts concentric normal stranding. If the diameter of the insulated core is identical, it is called symmetrical cable forming. If the diameter of the insulation core is different, the cable formation is called asymmetric cable formation. In order to avoid the influence of torsional stress on the core during the process of cable forming, the cable forming machine with the torsion device or bow shaped cable forming machine is used for the cable forming of circular insulated core to conduct the twisting and twisting.
3、 The way of cable forming
There are two ways to twist the strand and the cable, one is to twist back and the other is not to twist.
The rewinding and twisting is that the cable tray frame equipped with the setting out plate keeps the setting out plate at all times horizontal position when the machine rotates by means of the special device (the torsion device) on it. When the cable is formed, the insulation core is only subjected to the bending action, but does not twist. The back twisting is often used in the process of forming the circular insulated core. The core has no rebound stress after the cable forming, which can ensure the accuracy of the roundness and diameter of the cable.
The non twisted twisted cable is mostly used for the formation of fan-shaped lines. After the compression of the die, it becomes plastic deformation, thus eliminating the original torsional stress and ensuring the round after the cable is formed.


4、 Cable forming direction and pitch diameter ratio

The cable forming direction is generally right. The confirmation of cable forming direction is in the direction of ACSR Cable core forward, if the cage turns left, it is right direction, otherwise, otherwise, it is opposite.
The ratio of cable pitch diameter is different according to different types of cables. The circular core insulated by cross-linked polyethylene is hard and the diameter of cable forming is larger, with a disk of 30-40; The pitch diameter ratio of PVC insulated power cable is 30-40, and that of sector line is 40-50; The diameter ratio of the cable core of plastic insulated control cable is specified in the national standard, and generally it shall not be more than 16-20.
5、 Stranding coefficient and twist rate
In a pitch of the cable forming, the ratio of the actual length of the insulation core to the length of the pitch of the cable is called the stranding coefficient (k=l/h);
The stranding rate is the ratio between the difference between the actual length of the insulating core and the length of the cable forming pitch and the length of the formed pitch within a cable forming pitch λ=( L-H)/H × 100%
It is convenient to adopt the coefficient K, and the K value is always greater than 1. Thus, the actual value of K is increased by one K value for the single insulated core after the cable forming. The resistance of the core is proportional to the core, that is, the resistance of the core is also increased by a k value. If the insulation resistance is inversely proportional to the length of the insulating core, the insulation resistance of each core will be reduced by a k value. From the angle of reducing the core resistance and increasing the insulation resistance value, it is hoped that the smaller the coefficient of cable winding is, the better.
The ratio of the cable formation to pitch ratio is inversely proportional to the square of the pitch ratio. Therefore, the smaller the pitch ratio, the greater the coefficient of the cable formation, the greater the amount of insulating core material is, otherwise, from the perspective of saving the material consumption, the smaller the coefficient of cable formation is, the better.
6、 Wrapping process
The production process of wrapping all kinds of metal or non-metallic materials on the core or core of the guide cable is covered with the specified pitch spiral in the form of ribbon or wire.
7、 Non armored cable wrapping
In order to prevent the cable core from deformation after the cable forming and to prevent the adhesion with sheath, the insulating core shall be wound with the wrapping layer while forming and filling on the cable forming machine. For the non armored plastic insulated cable, the 1-2-layer non-woven fabric belt is usually wrapped by covering (the first layer or two layers are used for the specific purpose, and the principle of cable forming and tightening is adopted), The covering size is 10% – 15% of the bandwidth, and the wrapping angle is 25% °~ forty ° Within the scope.


8、 Armouring of cables
Steel belt armored cable is mainly suitable for underground direct burial, and can bear certain mechanical pressure; Steel wire armored cable is mainly suitable for laying with drop or vertical, and can bear large mechanical tension. Armored cable is mainly divided into steel strip armor and steel wire armour, and their combination armouring mode.
If there is shielding material (including unified shielding) on the core of the steel belt armored cable, the cable core shall be replaced by the extruded insulating sleeve instead of the inner layer. If the insulation core has no metal shielding layer, the inner layer of the insulation wire can be extruded or wrapped. The inner layer of the wrapping is generally PVC or PE and other similar strip.
Generally, the steel wire armored cable adopts the extruded inner layer.
For the model of armored cable, such as yjv22, there will be two numbers, the first number is the armor Code: generally, there are 2, 3 and 4 numbers:
2 – indicates double layer steel belt armor
3 – indicates the thin steel wire armouring
4 – indicates the thick steel wire armouring
The steel strip thickness and copper clearance of armored cable, wire diameter and clearance of steel wire armored cable shall meet the relevant standards.

Performance Comparison of Copper and Copper Clad Aluminum Cable

Cables are divided into different inner conductors. There are two main types, one is pure copper material and the other is copper clad aluminum material. The English name of copper-clad aluminum is Copper Clad Aluminum, so copper-clad aluminum conductors are also often called: CCA conductors. Copper-clad aluminum composite wire was first introduced by Germany in the 1930s, and then promoted in the United Kingdom, the United States, France and other countries, and is widely used in various fields. CATV cables in the United States began to trial copper-clad aluminum wires as early as 1968, and consumed 30,000 tons/year. Now American countries have replaced pure copper cables with copper-clad aluminum (steel) cables.
Copper-clad aluminum is formed by concentrically cladding a copper layer on the surface of aluminum or aluminum/steel alloy core material, and the thickness of the copper layer is above 0.55mm. Due to the skin effect characteristics of high-frequency signal transmission on the conductor, the cable TV signal is transmitted on the surface of the copper layer above 0.008mm. The copper-clad aluminum inner conductor can fully meet the signal transmission requirements, and its signal transmission characteristics are comparable to those of copper with the same diameter. The body is consistent.

Compare copper-clad aluminum and pure copper in the following three aspects:

1. Mechanical characteristics:
The strength and elongation of pure copper conductor cable are larger than copper-clad aluminum conductor, which means that pure copper is better than copper-clad aluminum in terms of mechanical properties. From the perspective of cable design, pure copper conductors have the advantage of better mechanical strength than copper-clad aluminum conductors, which are not necessarily required in actual applications. Copper-clad aluminum conductors are much lighter than pure copper, so the overall weight of copper-clad aluminum cables is lighter than pure copper conductor cables, which will bring convenience to cable transportation and power cable erection. In addition, copper-clad aluminum is a little softer than pure copper, and cables made of copper-clad aluminum conductors are a little bit better in flexibility than pure copper cables.

2. Electrical performance:
Because the conductivity of aluminum is worse than that of copper, the DC resistance of copper-clad all aluminum conductors is greater than that of pure copper conductors. Does this affect the main 2014 high school entrance examination sprint comprehensive review guidance Beijing area test questions Guangdong area test questions Jiangsu area test questions to see if the cable will be damaged Using power supply, such as providing power to the amplifier, if it is used for power supply, the copper-clad aluminum conductor will cause additional power consumption and voltage drop. When the frequency exceeds 5MHz, there is no obvious difference in the attenuation of AC resistance under these two different conductors. Of course, this is mainly due to the skin effect of high-frequency current. The higher the frequency, the closer the current flows to the surface of the conductor. The surface of the copper-clad aluminum conductor is actually pure copper. When the frequency is high, the entire current is plated. It flows in the copper material. In the case of 5MHz, the current flows in a thickness of about 0.025 mm near the surface, and the thickness of the copper layer of the copper-clad aluminum conductor is about twice this thickness. For coaxial cables, because the transmitted signal is above 5MHz, the transmission effect of copper-clad aluminum conductor and pure copper conductor is the same. The attenuation of the actual test cable can prove this point.
Copper-clad aluminum is softer than pure copper conductors and is easy to straighten during the production process. Therefore, to a certain extent, it can be said that cables with copper-clad aluminum have better return loss indicators than cables with pure copper conductors.

3. Economy:
Copper-clad aluminum conductors are sold by weight, and pure copper conductors are also sold by weight. Copper-clad aluminum conductors are more expensive than pure copper conductors of the same weight. But the copper clad aluminum of the same weight is much longer than the pure copper conductor, and the cable is calculated according to the length. The copper clad aluminum wire of the same weight is 2.5 times the length of the copper wire, and the price is only a few hundred yuan per ton. Taken together, copper-clad aluminum is very advantageous. Since copper-clad aluminum cables are relatively light, the transportation cost and installation cost of the cable will be reduced, which will bring certain convenience to the construction.

4. Ease of maintenance:
The use of copper-clad aluminum can reduce network failures and prevent network personnel from “cutting the core in winter and cutting the skin in summer” during maintenance (aluminum strip or aluminum tube products). Due to the large difference in thermal expansion coefficient between the copper inner conductor and the aluminum outer conductor of the cable, in the hot summer, the aluminum outer conductor stretches greatly, and the copper inner conductor is relatively retracted, and cannot fully contact the elastic contact piece in the F header; in severe cold In winter, the aluminum outer conductor shrinks greatly, causing the shielding layer to fall off. When the coaxial cable uses a copper-clad aluminum inner conductor, the thermal expansion coefficient between it and the aluminum outer conductor is small. When the temperature changes, the cable core failure is greatly reduced, which improves the transmission quality of the network.


In general, the overall performance of copper-clad aluminum conductors is better than pure copper conductors, which will save users’ costs.
The industry believes that the use of copper-clad aluminum wire in the wire and cable industry is also a good way to relieve the current pressure on enterprises. The aluminum wire is coated with a layer of copper and made of bimetallic wire. Because of its small specific gravity and good transmission performance, it is especially suitable for the inner conductor of radio frequency coaxial cable. Compared with pure copper wire, its density is About 40% pure copper. The transmission characteristics are better than pure copper wire, and it is the most ideal internal conductor of radio frequency coaxial cable branch line.